Mr. Speaker, the rat pack did not start in 1988. It started in the 1984 election. This is very important because my memoirs outline all these things and I just thought I would correct this historical inaccuracy that the member has described.
The hon. member talks about the immigration level and I am glad to hear him say that because he was a member of the once Reform Party. In the 1997 election the Reform candidate in my riding went to Alexandria, Ontario, and said in front of my constituents that if elected he wanted to reduce the immigration levels. I suppose he is entitled to his opinion. He also said that in his opinion, refugees were all phonies.
I took him to task on that. I said that in the constituency of Glengarry--Prescott--Russell the ancestors of the people in the audience came to Canada in 1784 after a war in the United States. They were the United Empire Loyalist refugees and they were the ancestors of some of the students in the class. I also told him that some time later there were Highland clearances in Scotland where the British sheep barons kicked out the Catholics from the hills. They became known as the Highland clearance refugees and they were the ancestors of yet more students in the class.
As well, in 1848 there was a great famine in Ireland and the ancestors of my wife, of my children and of my grandchildren came to this country. They were the Irish potato famine refugees and they were not phonies either.
What is phony is to pretend today that the people across the way care for refugees and care for immigrants when they never have in the past.